It was very disheartening to hear the speech of the President to the new graduates at West Point, and even more discouraging to read of the speech of the Vice President to the Air Force Academy graduating cadets. While they are at the top of the Chain of Command, this doesn’t necessarily make them leaders worth emulating. In my view, politicians are rarely capable of strategic thought (except as it relates to their campaign) and many lower-level politicos interfere with sound military planning in order to protect pet installations and contracts in their voting districts.
Somehow, our military leadership must convince political leaders that their job is not to run wars, but to keep us out of them; and, that in a time of conflict they need to step aside and let our military do their job without interference. In an era of reduced defense budgets, no one is more wise about the allocation of precious resources to protect our country than the men and women called upon to fight our battles and win them unconditionally. I suggest that this task start with a reeducation of the voting public as to the nature of warfare and what constitutes a winning response.
I recall my old boss in the Air Force, General Curtis LeMay, dressing down President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, while we sat on the flightline with our B-52s loaded to the gills with nukes. He basically said to Kennedy that, “if you’re going to die as a lamb, you might as well die as a sheep.” He didn’t use those exact words, but you get my drift.
The General created our Strategic Air Command, and it can rightly be called America’s first Kamikaze Corps. But, we were ready to die and believed we would; and it was okay, because we were more afraid of the General. LeMay also frightened the Soviets so badly that they backed down. While Kennedy took the credit, it wouldn’t have happened without the General. He was a Commander that our new graduating officers should emulate.
LeMay once said, “Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you’re not a good soldier.”
I think many of the unfortunate stressed-out soldiers returning from our unfinished ‘Wars on Terror’ were never taught this in basic training, and had they been, their symptoms would be more manageable. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara once said, “He was the finest combat commander of any service I came across in war. But he was extraordinarily belligerent, many thought brutal. During WWII, he got a report of a high level of aborted B24 bomber missions. He issued an order. He said, ‘I will be in the lead plane on every mission. Any plane that takes off will go over the target, or the crew will be court-martialed.’ The abort rate dropped overnight. Now that’s the kind of commander he was.”
LeMay insisted on rigorous training and very high standards of performance for all SAC personnel, be they officers, enlisted men, aircrews, mechanics, or administrative staff, and reportedly commented, “I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the merely unfortunate.” A true story circulated among our SAC flight crews that involved the cigar he usually had jammed in the corner of his mouth. LeMay once took the co-pilot’s seat of a SAC bomber to observe the mission, complete with his lit cigar. Now, the first thing one is aware of in the ‘E’ model B 52 when you climb in is the smell of JP-4 and burning insulation. When asked by the pilot to put the cigar out, LeMay demanded to know why. When the pilot explained that fumes inside the fuselage could ignite the airplane, LeMay snarled, “It wouldn’t dare.”
Conversely, LeMay was also known for his love of his men and their physical well-being and comfort. LeMay worked to encourage morale, individual performance, and the retention of superior warriors and their leaders. He was the kind of officer that we need more of.
